4+6=2

Hopefully this post’s seemingly random title caught your attention. You may be wondering what on earth a math equation has to do with the Bible. What do these numbers mean? Maybe simplifying the equation will help with understanding it. Let’s add the first two digits together to get the real sum of the addition problem. The real answer of 4+6 is 10, of course most folks will know this. So if we replace the first two digits with the new found answer we now get the equation 10=2. This may seem like a useless bunch of nonsense but as Paul said, I ask you “…bear with me a little in my folly…”. Hopefully by the end of this post you will agree with me that 10 does indeed equal 2.

When referring to Biblical things what comes to mind when you hear the number 10? I don’t know about you but a pretty commonly known Biblical phrase is “The 10 Commandments”. Almost everyone, sinner or saint alike, have at least heard of the 10 commandments. We won’t weigh into each commandment individually but the general over all theme. In Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5 there is found lists of “The Ten Commandments”. We will come back to these later. A lot of people want to ignore the Old Testament because Jesus came and its all grace now. “We can’t live by the law, there’s no way, its impossible, Jesus came so we don’t have to follow the law”. I however am of the persuasion that killing, adultery, having other gods and the such like is still wrong. For some reason or another, none of those things seem very Christian—y to me.

Anyway…. Let’s move on to what Jesus said.

Matthew 22:36-40

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Ohhhhhhh you thought we’d leave the law behind when it came to Jesus huh? Apparently Jesus approved of the law. I regress, I regress, the law can not make anyone perfect because it just tells us what sin is. It is by Jesus that we are saved and Him alone. Not by works… I know, I know.

Onnnnnnward. Let’s consider the above passage. Jesus said that the great commandment, in so many other words, was to love God with every thing within you and in every possible way there is. The second commandment is to love your neighbor the same as you love yourself. Notice that Jesus only answered with 2 commandments versus the Old Testaments 10. God gave 10, Jesus gave 2. Was this disunity? I think not. Jesus summarized the 10 commandments into these 2 commandments listed here. Basically Jesus said at the end of this passage that all the law that already existed could be summarized in these two commandments. If you have love for God and man then you will have no desire to break any commandment.

Now we know where the 10 and 2 came from. You may still be wondering what on earth does the 4+6 have to do with anything. If you’ll bear with me I will explain.

Exodus 20:1-11

1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:12-17

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

If you noticed, I separated the passage of the 10 commandments into two sections. The first 4 commandments is contained in the first section and the last 6 commandments are contained in the second section. 4+6=10 commandments.

If you take note, the first 4 commandments have got to do with God: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”. All of these commandments have got to do with us loving God. I can hear the naysayers. There is no more sabbath. Sure there is, Jesus said now we are required to keep every day holy, not just one day, but all days. This doesn’t have anything to do with the topic so let’s move on.

The last 6 commandments have to do with our fellow man. “Honour thy father and thy mother”, “Thou shalt not kill”, “ Thou shalt not commit adultery”, “Thou shalt not steal”, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”, “Thou shalt not covet” are all commandments that have to do with loving our neighbor. Surely if we loved our fellow man we would not commit any of these things against them. Sure, all sin is against God ultimately but it can be a sin against our fellow human that becomes sin against God because everyone is made in the image of God.

Joshua 23:11

11 Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.

John 13:35

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John 14:15

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

These few scriptures further solidify Jesus’s words. We should heed well to Love the Lord our God, and if we want others to know that we are a disciple of Jesus then we must love one another. If we don’t love one another then people will not know we are His disciples. It will push them away from Christ and cause a reproach against us.

Some more passages regarding loving God and our fellow man can be found in Romans 12:9-10, Romans 5:5-8, 1 John 4:7-12, 1 John 4:16-21, Luke 7:47, plus many others.

Do you now believe that 4+6=2? At the very least do you believe that 10=2?

Ecclesiastes 12:13

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The most important thing:

If you don’t know Jesus and want to here’s what to do…

Romans 10:9

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

And you know it works because…

Romans 10:13

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.